


Dinner for Two

by AlexaNDYE



Series: Domesticity [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 19:18:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15150053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexaNDYE/pseuds/AlexaNDYE
Summary: Tony and Pepper, and one of the many times they stay in for dinner.





	Dinner for Two

**Author's Note:**

> Pepper sass is the best sass.

Tony was hunched over one of his prototypes for his newly designed gauntlet for his new Iron Man nano-nite suit when his cellphone started to vibrate. He took a quick look at the caller ID and saw Rhodey’s sour face on it. He smirked, and told Friday to accept the call and put it on speaker.

 

“Hey Platypus. What’s up?”

 

“Hey, you got time to talk about the upgrades tonight?”

 

Tony smirked. “You seem to always call about upgrades and never about my health. You know, you used to call me regularly just to see if I’m okay.”

 

Rhodey raised an eyebrow and replied flatly, “You don’t answer my calls ninety percent of the time, Tony.”

 

Tony shrugged. “You call at a bad time ninety percent of the time.” He could imagine the eye roll he was getting from Rhodey. “Anyways, I can’t do tonight. My wife is making dinner.”

 

“You just love saying that, don’t you?”

 

“What?” Tony asked.

 

“The ‘w’ word.”

 

Tony tried to hide his smile. “I don’t get to say it often.”

 

“How’s about tomorrow night?”

 

“Sorry, my wife and I have date night tomorrow night.”

 

“Okay, how’s about next weekend?”

 

Tony winced. “Eh… I usually do something with my wife on the weekends.”

 

“Is this going to be one of those marriages?” Rhodey asked with a small sigh.

 

“Huh?”

 

“You know – I’ll ask to see if you can come out and play, but you’ll say your wife won’t let you.”

 

“Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Pepper tries to kick me out of the house whenever she gets the chance.” Tony shrugged. “Something about me and fire, and wanting peace and quiet.” He shrugged. “Whatever that means.”

 

Rhodey began to laugh. “Well, you can be a handful sometimes. When she does kick you out of the house, let me know. You know where to find me – and try to answer my calls more often.”

 

Tony smiled. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll try to.”

 

“Liar. Okay, see you around, Tony. Say hello to the missus for me.”

 

“Will do. See ya, Rhodes,” Tony replied before the call ended.

 

“Miss Potts is requesting your assistance upstairs,” Friday announced thereafter.

 

Tony looked up from his gauntlet. “What about?”

 

“She wants you to help her in the kitchen.”

 

He furrowed his eyebrows. “If I remember correctly, she said I should one-thousand percent stay the hell out of the kitchen at all times unless I want to sleep in a rundown motel.” He paused. “Her words, not mine.”

 

Friday replied, “she wants you to taste something.”

 

His ears perked up and began to roll his stool towards his desk. “Now _that_ I can do.” He closed his computer with a snap and locked down the workshop with a couple of claps, turning off all the lights and making sure his nano-nite suit was under electronic protection. “Close up the rest of the shop for me, Friday. Oh, and remind me to call Rhodey on Thursday.”

 

“Of course, Mr. Stark.”

 

Tony hummed a light tone as he climbed the steps to the main Research and Development hub. He then walked through the double glass doors and stepped into the private elevator. He pressed his thumb against the finger print scanner and flashed across the board at the top of the elevator were the words ‘Welcome Mr. Stark’.

 

When the elevator doors opened to their penthouse atop Avengers Tower, a strong aroma of spices, vegetables, and beef consumed him.

 

He took a moment to take in the smell and sighed contently. He saw Pepper stirring something in a large, dark gray, non-stick pot on top of the stove that was adjacent to the bar. The high class industrial fan did wonders to hide the steam that had risen from the simmering stew, and it also did an amazing job whenever Tony tried to cook. Pepper could hardly tell something was burning.

 

Pepper stirred the stew around before skimming a bit of liquid from the top and carefully bringing the delectable dish to her lips. She hummed in approval and sipped at the soup again.

 

“Mmm,” Tony hummed as he approached her. “Smells delicious.” He came up behind her, wrapped his arm around her waist, and leaned over her shoulder. He stared down at the thick brown stew and spotted diced potatoes, carrots, onions, and chunks of beef that seemed to pull apart with the lightest stir.

 

“Here,” Pepper said as she brought the ladle up to Tony’s face. She cupped her hand and brought it underneath to catch any droplets. He leaned in and let his lips touch the edge. He hummed in approval and began to nod.

 

“That’s really good,” he replied with a wide grin. “Mm, I love it when you cook.”

 

She smirked. “Why, because none of it is on fire?”

 

“Rude,” he deadpanned.

 

“You did a wonderful job with the steaks a couple weeks ago.” She tried to make up for the teasing.

 

“That’s because you asked Friday to be very nagging when it came to me and the kitchen. The tiniest bit of smoke, and she wouldn’t stop beeping at me – and – _AND_ , you overrode my protocols. I couldn’t stop her.”

 

She raised an eyebrow. “Is it bad that I didn’t want to have to remodel the kitchen a third time?”

 

He wound his hand in a circle and gestured to the stove. “This is a learning process, Honey. Just give me a few more tries and I’ll be able to cook something.”

 

“I don’t think the fire department will appreciate that.”

 

Tony looked at her flatly. “I’m Iron Man. We don’t have to tell the fire department every single time there’s a fire.” He paused and then his eyes lit up. “Oh, I have an idea. I can reprogram DUM-E as a certified fireman. Give him a fire extinguisher and he’s good to go.”

 

Pepper mentally smacked her face with her palm. She continued to stir the stew and set the heat to low. “Please rewind and slowly say that again. I think you forgot about all of the other times you gave him a fire extinguisher.”

 

He frowned a little and shrugged. “It wasn’t _that_ bad, and it’s not like he’s hitting me with it. He’s using it properly.” She merely stared at him flatly and whilst he was running through a list of all the possible outcomes from giving DUM-E a fire extinguisher, he caved. “Okay, so no fire extinguisher for him.”

 

“Not for a while,” she replied.

 

He hummed to himself as he thought of all the possible positives. “What if, and before you say anything, Babe, please hear me out,” he began. The pet name alerted Pepper that he was about to say something ridiculous. He brought up his hand to her waist and rubbed the spot under his thumb in light circles. As his soon-to-be-wife, she was all too familiar with his tactics of coaxing her into his out-of-the-box ideas that were quite known to be completely horrendous. “What if the house was on fire, and our baby was in the house. DUM-E would technically be the first line of defense.” He saw her raise an eyebrow. “And if DUM-E doesn’t have that fire extinguisher, who is going to protect our baby from the flames?”

 

Pepper amused him. “Where are we in this picture?”

 

“Uh, we are… at a Gala in Australia.”

 

“All the way in Australia?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why is no one watching our baby while we’re away?”

 

“DUM-E is.”

 

“Where is Happy?”

 

“He’s retired,” he replied. Pepper furrowed her eyebrows at him. “Hey, after decades of being by my side and putting up with all the Iron Man stuff, I’d be retired, too. You can’t say you’ve never thought about it.”

 

She shrugged and nodded. He wasn’t wrong. “Where are my parents?”

 

“They’re… preoccupied with something.”

 

“They’re preoccupied with something that isn’t their grandchild while the parents are away at a Gala in Australia.”

 

Tony blinked. “Yes.”

 

“Where is Maria, Nat, and Bruce?”

 

“You’d trust them with our baby?”

 

“Yes. I’d trust them more than DUM-E.”

 

He brought up his hand to his heart and rubbed the area. “That hurts, Pep.”

 

She moved her body closer to his and tugged on his t-shirt. “Listen, Tony. As much as I love you, and your creations and inventions, I don’t want robots watching our child while we’re away overseas. I would rather yank Happy out of retirement.”

 

He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her. His eyes looked down at her lips, admiring its light pink color, and then shifted to her gaze. “You’d trust Happy with our baby?”

 

She had to think about it for a moment. “A little, I mean, he takes care of you when I’m not here.”

 

Tony looked off to the side in distraught. Her snarky and sassy comment hit him hard, and it felt like he had to respond, preferably with a smart comeback, but he couldn’t think of any. He would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy being challenged verbally; he loved it when she sassed him.

 

“Can you grab a couple bowls?” she asked.

 

He stared into the distance for a few more seconds while her sass was still burning. “Yeah, sure,” he deadpanned.

 

He brought out a few bowls from a nearby cupboard and began to fill them with rice that had been cooking in another pot. Pepper ladled fair portions of stew over the rice, being careful to include all of the protein and vegetables.

 

Pepper poured out a glass of wine for herself and a glass of scotch for Tony. While he was in the living room setting the small round glass table that was lowered into the ground, and surrounded by plush white pillows and a light gray rug.

 

She noticed that whenever they stayed in for dinner, he would set the placemats right next to each other, and while they ate, he occasionally brushed her thigh or her knee with his hand, and sometimes he’d wrap his arm around her lower back and play with the hem of her shirt. After their meal and only their drinks remained, he usually faced her and watched her intently and endearingly whilst she talked and sipped her glass of wine.

 

She noticed this happen a few times while they were out with some of their friends. Nat and Maria commented on it one evening in their ‘Avengers: Girls Only’ messaging chatroom on their phones, and then everyone started to chime in with their own teasing. To avoid blushing like a red balloon, she had to stop checking her phone for quite a while.

 

She didn’t hate it – heavens no. She, in fact, adored it. It made her feel like it was just the two of them, alone and in their own secluded world where there was no Iron Man and no next mission or threat that was going to end the world. It was just… them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3


End file.
